At the time, AMD said that it will ship to customers in first half of 2015 but it looks like a year later the Opteron A1100 Cortex A57 will start shipping in Q1 2016. Not as bad as Duke Nukem, but a year is a long time in Chipland. This seems to be the first ARM server SoC to ship commercially. Calxeda a world's loudest ARM server maker was bankrupted in late 2013 and HP still managed to ship some servers based on Calxeda procesors in late 2014. But AMD had not abandoned Seattle as many thought. AMD's CFO still beleives that ARM based server market might increase to 15 percent by 2019 and AMD wants a slice of that cake even if the chocolate frosting has gone past its best before date. .

AMD Opteron A1100 SoC has up to eight ARM Cortex A57 cores with 4MB of shared L2 followed by 8MB of shared L3 cache. It supports two DDR3/DDR4 channels and up to 1866 MHz memory with ECC. The SoC supports two 10 Gb Ethernet network connectivity, 8-lane PCI-Express Gen 3 as well as 14 SATA-3 ports.

“The ecosystem for ARM in the data center is approaching an inflection point and the addition of AMD’s high-performance processor is another strong step forward for customers looking for a data center-class ARM solution. The macro trend of convergence between networking, storage and servers is an important catalyst in this evolution. Customers now have access to 64-bit ARM processors from the only silicon provider that also has decades of experience delivering professional enterprise and embedded products.”

The first customer to ship AMD Opteron A1100 SoC in enterprise-class systems is a company called SoftIron and the system will be known as an Overdrive3000 system for developers. It will be followed by Software Defined Storage solutions from the same vendor.

Norman Fraser, CEO of SoftIron said

“The secret of the AMD Opteron A1100 SoC’s appeal is not just the cores, it’s everything around the cores. If you’ve got an application where you need to move large amounts of data around quickly, you’re going to love it.”

AMD is working with Silver Lining Solutions (SLS) to integrate SLS fabric technology in innovative dense server designs featuring the Opteron A1100 Series, targeted at streaming, web, and storage workloads for cloud and hyperscale datacenters. The Opteron A1100 will support Enterprise Linux leaders including Red Hat and SUSE operating system and 64 bit application support.

Much has changed for AMD in the last few quarters. According to roadmap from Q1 2015 Seattle was planned for 2014, followed by Project Skybridge in 2015 and in 2016 the K12 AMD's custom ARM core. Project Skybridge got canceled and K12 was pushed for later – at earliest at some point in late part of 2017, or 2020 or perhaps never. It seems when you burn your roadmaps that often you end up lost in a car full of smoke..

Xiaomi’s new Mi4c is a bit of a puzzle. It’s basically a Mi4i on steroids, while the Mi4i is itself a stripped down version of the company’s flagship Mi4.

If this isn’t confusing enough, we should also note that the Mi4i appears to have been a flop, as the Mi4c is replacing it just months after launch, at the same price point. From the outside, both devices are nearly identical, but the Mi4c has a vastly more powerful processor under the bonnet.

When Xiaomi launched the Snapdragon 615-based Mi4i, a lot of observers likened it to the iPhone 5C, and this comparison made sense: It was a plastic variant of their flagship, with somewhat weaker hardware. However, the Mi4c is a bit more than that, thanks to its Snapdragon 808 processor.

The Mi4c launched in two versions, and we got a review sample of the cheaper one, with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The “Advanced” version ships with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The latter sounds like a high-end device clad in plastic, a bit like an executive in a tracksuit.

The rest of the spec includes a 5-inch 1080p display, 13-megapixel f/2.0 rear camera, FDD and TDD LTE support, 3080mAh battery and the new USB Type-C connector at the bottom.

In terms of pricing, the Xiaomi Mi4c costs a bit more than competing models from small brands: $239 for the 16GB variant and $275 for the 3GB/32GB unit. However, you do get a much more powerful processor than you would on $150-$200 devices.

Design and Build Quality

The Xiaomi Mi4c and Mi4i are identical, so if you’ve seen the latter, you’ve seen the new “c” model. The phone features a polycarbonate build, but unlike Xiaomi’s Redmi-series devices, the back is not removable – it’s a unibody design.

This means it feels a bit better than a Redmi, and the finish also feels more expensive. It’s soft to the touch and the quality is impeccable. Our sample was white as llello, and the finish had a satin vibe to it. While it’s great at keeping fingerprints off the device, it’s also a bit slippery.

The power button and volume rocker are located on the right. Don’t let looks deceive you, despite the chrome finish, the buttons are plastic as well.

The double SIM slot is located on the left side.

Although we’ve seen metal phones at this price point, the Mi4c doesn’t feel cheap, not even close. The design is pure minimalism. There’s really not much we can say about it, everything is laid out logically and looks good.

Lastly, the reversible USB Type-C connector means you won’t scratch it while trying to plug in your charger after a night out on the town. Actually, the new Type-C connector is the only way to distinguish the Mi4c from the Mi4i.

One upside to using the sharp-edged design is that the footprint of the Mi4c is rather small: 138.1mm x 69.6mm x 7.8mm. Granted, it’s not the thinnest phone around, but it also happens to be one of the shortest 5-inchers out there (most are 140-145mm tall). In fact, it’s as tall as the iPhone 6, which features a 4.7-inch display, and it’s just 2mm wider than Apple’s bestseller.

The IR and 3.5mm audio port are located at the top.

Due to the plastic build, the Mi4c weighs 132g, despite the integrated 3080mAh battery. Xiaomi uses a magnesium alloy frame, which helps keep weight down, while guaranteeing rigidity. The build quality and finish are top notch, and at this point we expect nothing less from Xiaomi.

In an era of oversized phones, the compact Mi4c is a breath of fresh air. The relatively small bezels also help make the phone look and feel better (although Xiaomi marketing is overselling them as ultra-narrow bezels).

There is not much to complain about. Sure, it could have been slightly thinner, but it packs a powerful battery, and to us this is a good trade-off. Xiaomi could have gone for metal on volume rocker and power buttons, just to give it a slightly better tactile feel, but we are really nit-picking at this point.

Xiaomi Mi4 Specs and Performance

This is where the Mi4c shines. Unlike its ill-fated predecessor, the Mi4c rocks the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, which is a six-core processor with a very nice spec. The new Nexus 5X and LG’s G4 use the exact same chip, although they cost quite a bit more.

The Snapdragon 808 features two big Cortex-A57 cores, backed by four frugal Cortex-A53 cores. Like the controversial Snapdragon 810, the 808 is a 20nm chip. However, the 808 is not just an 810 with fewer Cortex-A57 cores. There are a few additional differences worth pointing out.

The Snapdragon 808 features Adreno 418 graphics, whereas the 810 relies on the flagship Adreno 430 GPU. On paper, the Adreno 418 is no match for the 430, as it features 128 ALUs vs. 192 ALUs on the 430. It also lacks support for H.265 encoding, but it’s still a very potent GPU, especially if you compare it to the Adreno 405 and Mali-T720 you’d get on most mid-range phones.

The differences don’t end there, as the 810 supports faster, DDR4 memory, and has a more capable camera ISP. Using dual-channel DDR4 obviously does wonders for GPU performance on the SD810, but in a mid-range device equipped with DDR3 memory, the performance gap probably wouldn’t be nearly as wide (unfortunately we don’t have any Snapdragon 810 devices with DDR3 to prove this assumption).

Both SoCs share the same LTE modem, so let’s take a look at the rest of the spec.

Xiami Mi4c specs:

SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (MSM8992), 20nm

CPU: Two 64-bit Cortex-A57 cores up to 1.8GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.44GHz

We also need to point out that Xiaomi is apparently sourcing components from a number of leading vendors, so we can’t be sure what sort of display and camera sensor we are looking at – in its promotional materials, Xiaomi talked about “custom displays” with ultra-narrow bezels. It appears the panel is manufactured by Sharp/JDI, but we are not sure.

As far as the camera sensor goes, it turns out you could end up with Sony’s IMX258 or the Samsung S5K3M2. Regardless of vendor, the sensor is quite good and features PDAF.

As you would expect, the Snapdragon 808 blows most mid-range phones out of the water. In AnTuTu you’re looking at 50k+, single thread performance is much higher than on Cortex-A53 octa-cores, and the GPU is a lot faster than anything you’d find in mainstream octa-core chips from Qualcomm, MediaTek or Huawei.

It’s not just the SoC, the rest of the package is just as good. Although 16GB of storage won’t impress anyone in this day and age, we are looking at a fast eMMC 5.0 unit. Speedy storage improves user experience. The only pity is that Xiaomi decided against a microSD slot, as it would have made the Mi4c even more attractive (16GB of eMMC 5.0 is plenty for most people, but 32GB of more microSD storage would have been a boon for users who have a big media collection).

The responsiveness is top notch and the phone feels well optimised. Compared to the Snapdragon 615, which was used in the Xiaomi Mi4c, the 808 is in a league of its own.

It doesn’t stutter or slow down, but it’s not perfect. The Snapdragon 810 has a reputation for throttling, while the 808 does not, at least not yet. Our sample experienced quite a bit of throttling after we ran a few consecutive benchmarks. Mind you, this is not a realistic use case, but due to the 810’s reputation, we felt compelled to push the Snapdragon 808 to its limits.

The good news is that the Snapdragon 808 in the Mi4c does not overheat or throttle nearly as dramatically as some Snapdragon 810 devices we came across. However, if you keep pushing it, the Snapdragon 808 throttles aggressively.

With a cold phone, we maxed out 3D Mark Ice Storm Extreme, but once it throttled, we ended up with just 6,500 points. Since we maxed out the Extreme test, we tried out Ice Storm Unlimited and ended up with an impressive score of about 19,500 on a cold device. That’s faster than an LG G4, or an iPhone 6, and it’s just 10-15% less than what you’d get on a Samsung Galaxy S6.

However, sustained performance paints a different picture. After a few minutes of high intensity gaming (or benchmarking), the Snapdragon 808 will throttle and you’ll be lucky to get 15,000.

In Antutu, we managed a few runs north of 50,000. However, as the processor temperature went up, our scores started to go down, first to 48,500, then to 44,000, and then to 42,000, where it stayed after 5-6 consecutive runs.

All smartphones with high-end processors throttle, including devices based on Qualcomm’s latest A57 SoCs, so we can’t hold it against this particular product.

Basemark loves the Xiaomi Mi4c. In the Geekbench 3 single-core test, we got 1259 points, almost twice as much as on a Snapdragon 615 device. The multicore score was 3054. The big A57 cores are obviously great to have for single-thread apps.

Bottom line, performance should not be an issue, although avid gamers might want a device that doesn’t throttle as much. The Xiaomi Mi4 gets you near-flagship performance for mid-range money, even if you go for the cheaper 2GB version.

Audio, Display and Camera Quality

The 5-inch 1080p display is excellent. However, Xiaomi is pushing it when it talks of “ultra-narrow bezels”. The bezel size is average at best, as the screen is 62.2mm wide, yet the phone is 69.6mm wide, like most 5-inch phones on the market today. The screen to body ratio is about 72%, which is quite good for a 5-incher.

Image quality is not an issue. At 441ppi, everything looks crisp, and the colours are good. In fact, the colours may be a tad oversaturated. Xiaomi claims 95% NTSC colour gamut. Viewing angles are good, the digitizer is accurate and there’s nothing to complain about.

The display is quite bright and remains readable outdoors. Xiaomi also uses a few software and hardware tweaks to optimize performance outdoors, and we should note that they work. Basically, the display would not feel out of place in a high-end smartphone.

Users can adjust the colour temperature and there is a special reading mode, designed to reduce glare and make e-books and PDFs more enjoyable.

Audio quality is not an issue, either. The phone features a noise cancelling microphone and call quality is excellent. The rear-firing mono speaker also does a good job. It's not the loudest phone around, but the sound quality is good even when it is maxed out, and there is a lot of bass. The small plastic hump next to the speaker ensures that it’s not muffled while sitting on a flat surface.

So what about that new PDAF camera? PDAF stands for phase-detection auto-focus and it eliminates the need to measure contrast within a sensor field, allowing the lens to quickly adjust its focal point and focus. So how does it work? Essentially, CMOS sensors with PDAF support feature a number of pixels with alternate halves blacked out. PDAF is also used on SLR cameras, using separator lenses. Blacking out pixels from one side is supposed to mimic this in a tiny CMOS sensor, without additional optics. Long story short, PDAF sensors can figure out the correct focal point and dramatically reduce the time needed to focus, at least in theory.

How does this work on the Mi4c? In some situations, it works as advertised, but in some situations the results are mixed. In any case, PDAF helps the camera focus in a bit faster, which means you will end up with more usable shots and fewer out of focus disasters. Don’t get us wrong, PDAF is not a game-changer, we are not looking at a huge boost in focus speed and a technology that will ensure every shot is properly focused, but it’s a useful addition to smartphone cameras.

While the new sensor is intriguing, the 5-element lens and f/2.0 aperture are not that impressive. In fact, the original Mi4 sports an f/1.8 aperture, which means it should be a better performer in low light.

Still, the Xiaomi Mi4c has one of the best 13-megapixel cameras we’ve seen on a non-flagship Android phone so far, so let's take a look at some samples shots. Mind you, the weather was awful, but we did what we could to try it out in relatively good light. Also shots were made in Auto mode, we did not tweak any manual controls, we just let the camera do its job.

Despite the overcast, daylight shots are excellent, on par with flagships of yesteryear, and in some cases even better. HDR works well, too, and helps boost dynamic range without a lot of ghosting. The Mi4c captures and processes HDR shots in no time.

Here is an HDR shot cropped to 100%. Note the ghosting on the Apple flag (no, it's no coincidence that we took a shot of an Apple shop, nor that the shop is located in what used to be a church).

Low-light imaging is not that impressive. A faster aperture would probably make a difference, and so would some software tweaks. There is no optical image stabilization, either, but we don’t really expect it on such an inexpensive device. Still, the results are above average for this market segment.

As you can see, post-processing is aggressive and there's not a lot of noise in night shots. This obviously makes the image a tad softer and kills a bit of detail. Also, the Mi4c features a dual-LED, dual-tone flash. It’s quite powerful and can be of good use.

The camera also performs well indoors. Daytime shots are properly exposed and the white balance is spot on, although a bit more contrast would help.

We shot the same scene at night, under incandescent lighting, and the results were good. However, once again we see that Xiaomi hates noise, and a fair amount of post-processing is visible.

As far as video goes, there’s no 4K support and the settings max out at 1080p (not that 4K would make much sense on a device with 16GB of storage). Video quality is good, no complaints there.

The front-facing camera is a 5-megapixel job with an f/2.0 lens and 85 degree wide-angle lens. It can also record 1080p video. Overall quality is quite good and the wide lens comes in handy as well.

The MIUI camera app is quite good and allows users to access a lot of manual controls. The interface is clean and fast.

You can also access a number of useful and not-so-useful features with a simple swipe. If you want to take a selfie, a vertical flick will activate the front camera.

Overall, we are pleased with both cameras and the app. It’s hard to ask for more from a mid-range device. We've come across $500 devices with similar or inferior imaging capabilities.

OS, UI and Everyday Use

MIUI 7 is based on Android 5.1, but like all MIUI incarnations, it resembles iOS rather than stock Android. For some users, this will be a selling point, while others won’t like it at all. Obviously, this is subjective, it’s a matter of personal preference, so we will proceed with some technical details.

While most Android skins tend to degrade performance, MIUI tries to be smoother than stock Android, which is easier said than done. Xiaomi rolls out weekly MIUI updates and we must commend this practice. The UI resembles iOS, but it also has quite a few tricks you won’t find in iOS or vanilla Android for that matter.

We like the powerful customisation features and the availability of numerous MIUI themes and wallpapers. MIUI also has a lot of power-user tools, ranging from battery management profiles and data usage tools, to comprehensive settings. The latter might be a bit too much for people unfamiliar with MIUI and Android in general, but geeks will love them.

On the design front, MIUI feels grown up, but people coming from a stock Android device, a Samsung or LG, may find it too different. Oh, and Xiaomi no longer uses skeuomorphic design elements in MIUI, although it stuck with them for a while after Apple ditched them.

The biggest problem with highly customised Android solutions like MIUI, Cyanogen, FlyMe and others is that there’s very little in the way of consistency. Coming from a Nexus phone to MIUI, or ditching a Galaxy to buy a Cyanogen device usually involves a lot of adjustment. Still, MIUI is very easy to fall in love with.

More importantly, MIUI is easy to live with, and so is the Mi4c. It’s a very compact device with next to no ergonomic foibles. It’s no taller than a 4.7-inch iPhone, it’s light and relatively thin (considering the size of the battery).

There is a lot to like here. The matte polycarbonate offers a decent amount of grip and stands up to grease and dirt quite well. Both the capacitive and hardware buttons work flawlessly, and Xiaomi has integrated a number of new gestures in the Mi4c.

For example, in the camera app, you can tap the phone from the side to snap a photo, which is good news for selfie lovers. You can activate the same feature in other apps, double tapping to navigate back. It might sound weird (and gimmicky), but these new gestures can be quite useful in some situations. Xiaomi also introduced double-tap-to-wake on the Mi4c, probably due to popular demand.

Like most Chinese phones, the Mi4c comes with dual SIM support (micro SIM to be exact). Xiaomi spiced things up with an IR blaster, so if you get a new Mi4c or Redmi Note 2, you can use them as a universal remote.

The Mi4c has no trouble getting a lock and maintaining it, although the signal tends to be weak. Here is what we got indoors, next to a window.

What about battery life? Surely the Mi4c has to be a great performer, with a 5-inch display, 20nm processor and 3080mAh battery? Well, it is, but we were expecting even more. At the end of the day, the 20nm Snapdragon 808 is still a high-end processor, so it can gobble up a lot of power. We also suspect that the phone could be more optimised. For example, MIUI takes up more than 1GB of RAM as soon as you boot up.

Although we expected a bit more, the Mi4c delivered about more than 5 hours of screen on time. Even with moderate to heavy use, we got a full day of battery life. If you don’t do a lot of gaming and if you don’t use mobile data too much, you could easily get two full days. We managed to get almost three days on WiFi only, with moderate use and one-quarter auto brightness.

The Mi4c supports quick charging, so you can get about 25% of the capacity back in about 30 minutes. Oh, and it’s got a USB Type-C connector. Sounds good, right? Well, it’s a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s easier to plug in, but what if you need a quick charge while you’re out of your home or office? You can recharge a micro USB phone just about anywhere, and it will be a while before everyone gets a Type-C charger.

With a Type-C device, you really need a few USB Type-C adapters; one for the car, one for the office, and so on. Yes, USB Type-C is a good idea, but it would have been a great idea five or seven years ago, before the industry produced a few billion devices that rely on micro USB for charging.

Still, USB Type-C is the way of the future and we might as well start transitioning today.

Conclusion

When Xiaomi launched the Mi4i, it marketed it as an affordable flagship. However, the Mi4i wasn’t a bargain and it didn’t feature a flagship processor. The Mi4c is basically the Mi4i done right: it costs as much as the Mi4i, but has a vastly more powerful processor, revamped camera, and it’s available in a 3GB/32GB configuration.

All in all, the Xiaomi Mi4c is a jack of all trades, an excellent all-round 5-inch smartphone. It’s compact, light, well designed and well built. The screen is top notch, and so is the camera. It packs a processor that wouldn’t be out of place in a $500 phone. The storage is fast, although 16GB feels cramped in this day and age. Sure, you can go for the 3GB/32GB version, but at $275 it almost as much as the proper Mi4, or the Meizu MX5. Too bad there is no 2GB/32GB model under the $250 mark. For the time being, only the 2GB/16GB model is available, in black and white. If you want a pink, yellow or cyan Mi4c, or if you want the 3GB/32GB version, you’ll have to wait.

Also, Xiaomi is about to launch the Mi5, and it’s worth noting that it’s now selling an “overseas edition” of the Mi4, sans LTE connectivity. If you can live without 4G, or if it’s still not supported by your carrier, it’s a tempting alternative at just $229.

Be as it may, the Mi4c is a powerhouse in a mid-range body. Unless you can’t live without the premium feel of metal, or the latest gimmicks like fingerprint sensors, and if good hardware is your primary concern, the Mi4c is a serious alternative to many flagship phones. The Mi4c is not Xiaomi’s iPhone 5C, it’s not a dumbed down flagship of yesteryear, it’s much more than that. It’s a good phone in its own right and it can go toe-to-toe with much more expensive devices. Come to think of it, the Mi4c would have made a good Nexus 5X.

Bottom line: We can recommend the Xiaomi Mi4c to anyone looking for the latest silicon on a budget, in a stylish package. This time around, Xiaomi got it right – the Mi4c truly is an affordable flagship.

The company shared a few more details including some numbers. The Seattle A-series ARM based APU has up to eight A57-based cores and up to 4MB shared L2 and 8 MB shared L3 memory. Servers love L2 and L3 memory and this is why you will find some much of it on this server part.

The platform supports up to 128GB memory per CPU and of course a multi CPU capability for Seattle is a must. The platform supports DDR3 and DDR4 memory with ECC and speeds of up to 1866MHz. Seattle is ARM SBSA (Server Base System Architecture) compatible which is a spec that is needed in the server world and since AMD has quite big presence in the server market, selling Seattle-based products should not be a problem. This is the first time in years that AMD can offer something that Intel cannot and this is a great advantage that AMD might leverage on.

Running Fedora project is also a bit deal as this is a Red Hat sponsored, community-driven Linux distribution that provides a familiar enterprise class operating environment to developers and IT administrators worldwide. It’s not hard to imagine that Seattle will support all mayor Linux distributions at launch, but AMD hasn’t said anything officially about that.

Our friends at Techreport have seen a live demo of Seattle based AMD Opteron A1100 Series processor running the entire LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), which is something that you need from a modern webserver. AMD demonstrated a WordPress blog and serving a video and this is a big deal as some 60 million websites and blogs are powered by WordPress. (Sadly we’re not one of them. Ed)

Seattle is sampling and as AMD said many times it is on schedule to launch the latter half of the year, most likely in Q4 2014.

Seattle is the first AMD ARM based server product and it is on track to ship in the latter half of 2014. In 2015 AMD plans another Cortex A57-based product codenamed Project Skybridge, a 20nm version of the A57-based server chip. AMD is playing it safe as it takes time to launch volume production at a new node.

Since the Seattle Opteron A1100 series is AMD’s first attempt to make a 64-bit ARM product, the company decided to use the mature 28nm process rather than the much riskier 20nm. In 2015 Project Skybridge will replace Seattle 28nm cores and Project Skybridge brings 20nm silicon.

Pin compatibility with Puma+?

The interesting part is that next generation Puma+ x86 cores and Project Skybridge will be pin compatible and we expect that Puma+ also comes in 20nm process at some point in 2015.

Project Skybridge is a low power part and it will support Google’s Android operating system. We will leave the rest to your imagination. We know that phones, tables and convertibles love Android, but we won't make any predictions what might happen. At this point Project Skybridge is a 20nm A57 based 64-bit server part. AMD has not said much about consumer ARM parts. For the time being the focus is solely on server parts.

2016 brings an interesting product codenamed K12. AMD didn’t release many details, but this is a custom 64-bit ARMv8 core. The custom ARM core approach has been used by many other companies and the most notable cases are Apple with the A7 CPU, Qualcomm with its Krait cores and Nvidia with Denver.

Only servers, for now

AMD will make a custom core that is supposed to be better than the A57, that is the general idea behind building custom core. AMD is developing 64-bit ARM alongside with 64-bit next generation x86 cores, so PC and notebook lovers have nothing to fear. There will be many APUs from house of AMD to run your PCs, notebooks and hopefully some x86 tablets as well.

AMD wants to address dense server, embedded, semi-custom and ultra-low power client market. This is quite ambitious but AMD is the only player that can create solutions in x86 and ARM architecture. Intel, Qualcomm or any other companies can do one or the other, not both of them.

Both Project Skybridge and K12 will have a graphics part and HSA support making them even more attractive in server and compute markets. We will see what happens, but AMD’s server roadmap is promising and can bring AMD back some market share, and win a slice of the ARM server market in the future.

ARM announced its first 64-bit cores a while ago and SoC makers have already rolled out several 64-bit designs. However, apart from Apple nobody has consumer oriented 64-bit ARM devices on the market just yet. They are slowly starting to show up and ARM says the transition to 64-bit parts is accelerating. However, the first wave of 64-bit ARM parts is not going after the high-end market.

Is 64-bit support on entry-level SoCs just a gimmick?

This trend raises a rather obvious question – are low end ARMv8 parts just a marketing gimmick, or do they really offer a significant performance gain? There is no straight answer at this point. It will depend on Google and chipmakers themselves, as well as phonemakers.

Qualcomm announced its first 64-bit part late last year. The Snapdragon 410 won’t turn many heads. It is going after $150 phones and it is based on Cortex A53 cores. It also has LTE, which makes it rather interesting.

Qualcomm and MediaTek appear to be going after the same market - $100 to $150 phones with LTE and quad-core 64-bit stickers on the box. Marketers should like the idea, as they’re getting a few good buzzwords for entry-level gear.

However, we still don’t know much about their real-world performance. Don’t expect anything spectacular. The Cortex A53 is basically the 64-bit successor to the frugal Cortex A7. The A53 has a bit more cache, 40-bit physical addresses and it ends up a bit faster than the A7, but not by much. ARM says the A7 delivers 1.9DMIPS/MHz per core, while the A53 churns out 2.3DMIPS/MHz. That puts it in the ballpark of the good old Cortex A9. The first consumer oriented quad-core Cortex A9 part was Nvidia’s Tegra 3, so in theory a Cortex A53 quad-core could be as fast as a Tegra 3 clock-for-clock, but at 28nm we should see somewhat higher clocks, along with better graphics.

That’s not bad for $100 to $150 devices. LTE support is just the icing on the cake. Keep in mind that the Cortex A7 is ARM’s most efficient 32-bit core, hence we expect nothing less from the Cortex A53.

The Cortex A57 conundrum

Speaking to CNET’s Brooke Crothers, ARM executive vice president of corporate strategy Tom Lantzsch said the company was surprised by strong demand for 64-bit designs.

He said ARM has been surprised by the pace of 64-bit adoption, with mobile parts coming from Qualcomm, MediaTek and Marvell. He said he hopes to see 64-bit phones by Christmas, although we suspect the first entry-level products will appear much sooner.

Lantzsch points out that even 32-bit code will run more efficiently on 64-bit ARMv8 parts. As software support improves, the performance gains will become more evident.

But where does this leave the Cortex A57? It is supposed to replace the Cortex A15, which had a few teething problems. Like the A15 it is a relatively big core. The A15 was simply too big and impractical on the 32nm node. On 28nm it’s better, but not perfect. It is still a huge core and its market success has been limited.

As a result, it’s highly unlikely that we will see any 28nm Cortex A57 parts. Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 810 is the first consumer oriented A57 SoC. It is a 20nm design and it is coming later this year, just in time for Christmas as ARM puts it. However, although the Snapdragon 810 will be ready by the end of the year, the first phones based on the new chip are expected to ship in early 2015.

While we will be able to buy 64-bit Android (and possibly Windows Phone) devices before Christmas, most if not all of them will be based on the A53. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Consumers won’t have to spend $500 to get a 64-bit ARM device, so the user base could start growing long before high-end parts start shipping, thus forcing developers and Google to speed up 64-bit development.

If rumours are to be believed, Google is doing just that and it is not shying away from small 64-bit cores. The search giant is reportedly developing a $100 Nexus phone for emerging markets. It is said to be based on MediaTek’s MT6732 clocked at 1.5GHz. Sounds interesting, provided the rumour turns out to be true.

The latest phones including the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 are launching with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 SoC. There is another Krait-based in the making, the Snapdragon 805, and Qualcomm has finally revealed its 64-bit plans for the high-end SoC parts.

The new performance leader from the house of Qualcomm is the Snapdragon 810 and will be the company’s first high-end 64-bit, 20nm SoC that can even support LPDDR4 memory.

No custom cores for now

The chip is based on Cortex A57 and Cortex A53 cores that will work in Qualcomm’s version of big.LITTLE. You will have four A57 high performance cores for heavy lifting, and four A53 cores for idling and easier tasks.

The surprising bit of course is that Qualcomm VP Anand Chandrasekher made a few questionable comments about octa-core chips and 64-bit cores just last year. Qualcomm was clearly working on them at the time, but for some reason Chandrasekher decided to call them “dumb” and “marketing gimmicks.”

This was clearly not the official line and Chandrasekher was eventually demoted for causing a few PR problems for Qualcomm. The company went on to announce its first 64-bit part a few months later and in February it announced the Snapdragon 615, its first 64-bit octa-core.

This is not a big surprise as Krait cores in 20nm with 64-bit are in the making and traditionally custom cores come after the ARM core version of the chip. This has happened before and will happen again, as it makes the transition a bit easier.

New GPU, 4K support, better imaging support

The new Adreno 430 GPU should be enough for upcoming 4K displays and should be some 30 percent faster than Adreno 420. Qualcomm also states that in GPGPU performance the new chip is 100 percent faster than the Adreno 420 and consumes 20 percent less, thanks to the 20nm process presumably. The new GPU has support for OpenGL ES 3.1 plus hardware tessellation, geometry shaders and programmable blending.

The new Snapdragon also enables a rich, native 4K/Ultra HD user interface and better camera support. The video and camera suite has been updated with gyro stabilisation and 3D noise reduction for high quality 4K video at 30 FPS and 1080p video at a stunning 120 frames per second.

4th generation LTE, MU-MIMO and more

The new chip and platform support LPDDR4 memory, but more importantly the Snapdragon 810 features a 4th generation LTE advanced multimode modem with support for the Qualcomm RF360. This new chipset supports 3x20MHz Carrier Aggregation enabling speeds up to 300Mbps, but it will be up to provides to support this standard.

When it comes to wireless the new SoC supports VIVE 2-stream 802.11ac with multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), which makes WiFi networks more efficient than ever in order to maximize the performance of local connectivity for mobile devices. Support for the new Bluetooth 4.1 standard is also on board, along with NFC, Qualcomm IZat location core for ubiquitous and highly accurate location services as well as USB 3.0.

Qualcomm plans to ship the Snapdragon 810 in the second half of 2014, but it expect us to see them in devices in early 2015. A cheaper and slower version of the SoC, dubbed Snapdragon 808, is also on the way. Samsung Galaxy S6 anyone?

TSMC and GlobalFoundries are expected to have 20nm mobile chip production in 2014 and this should align with the next generation of ARM based mobile processors. At the moment 2.3GHz is currently the limit 28nm and Snapdragon 800 and Tegra 4i (Grey) that is set to come in late 2013 or early 2014 both stop at this magical clock.

In order to surpass this number there is a big indication that companies will have to go for a smaller manufacturing node such as 20nm. At 20nm TSMC promises 30 percent higher speed and 1.9 times better density at 25 percent less power. The 30 percent faster will get ARM SoCs to around 3GHz with significantly more transistors that will mostly be spent on graphics. This is most likely how Nvidia plans to put the Kepler core on a Logan processor but we don’t have this confirmed, it just makes sense.

The 25 percent reduction in power consumption can be translated into a 25 percent better battery life boost with next generation SoCs. Since poor battery life is still one of the top complaints when it comes to smartphones, consumers should look forward to 20nm.

This will make the ARM alliance more competitive and ready to face the x86 threat coming from Intel and AMD, especially in the tablet and convertible space, but we are confident that Intel is not sleeping. If all goes well toward the end of 2014 Intel is going to get to 14nm Atoms, and AMD has a chance to get to the same transistor size with GlobalFoundries that has promised 14nm in the 2014.

ARM and TSMC have taped out the first Cortex A57 processor based on ARM’s next-gen 64-bit ARMv8 architecture.

The all new chip was fabricated on TSMC’s equally new FinFET 16nm process. The 57 is ARM’s fastest chip to date and it will go after high end tablets, and eventually it will find its place in some PCs and servers as well.

Furthermore the A57 can be coupled with frugal Cortex A53 cores in a big.LITTLE configuration. This should allow it to deliver relatively low power consumption, which is a must for tablets and smartphones. However, bear in mind that A15 cores are only now showing up in consumer products, so it might be a while before we see any devices based on the A57.

In terms of performance, ARM claims the A57 can deliver a “full laptop experience,” even when used in a smartphone connected to a screen, keyboard and mouse wirelessly. It is said to be more power efficient than the A15 and browser performance should be doubled on the A57.

It is still unclear when we’ll get to see the first A57 devices, but it seems highly unlikely that any of them will show up this year. Our best bet is mid-2014, and we are incorrigible optimists. The next big step in ARM evolution will be 20nm A15 cores with next-generation graphics, and they sound pretty exciting as well.